Chole’s tale: A young beagle, her worried owners and a Greeley resident who refused to give up

Laurie Poeschl of Greeley enjoys a quiet moment with her beagle, Chole. Chole got away and was lost on the Poudre Trail for two weeks before a resident in the Poudre River Ranch subdivision tracked her down and caught her in a trap.

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Every night since their beagle, Chole, ripped her leash away and ran off miles from their west Greeley home, Laurie and Rod Poeschl knocked on doors in the subdivision across from the Poudre Learning Center in hopes they could bring her home.

They brought their two grown daughters, who in turn brought their own children, and all of them walked through a cornfield with stalks taller than them. Laurie left a couple shirts behind in the hopes her scent would draw Chole to them. They grilled burgers by the Poudre Trail, where residents of the Poudre River Ranch spotted her occasionally, hiding in the tall grass. They walked and called for her and knocked on doors in the dark and the heat of the day and through downpours that flooded parts of the trail.

The neighbors promised to keep looking, and then, all that knocking paid off even more. Randy Peterson, who had a son-in-law for a vet, answered the door. He wanted to do more than look. He wanted to help.

Last fall, the Poeschls lost both their dogs to cancer. They were longtime family dogs who grew up with the kids. A picture of Lacey rests on a wall in their family room, where, with a glance to the right, you will see their front door and the dog statue by the entrance with a bone in its mouth that says “Welcome.” A picture of Bailey stands a few steps away in the corner, where, straight ahead, you can see their backyard and the dog statue that guards their patio.

A daughter, Lindsey Benson, let them mourn, then surprised them in December with Chole, a beagle puppy she got from a breeder in Eaton. The Poeschls, as expected, fell in love right away. Chole wasn’t nearly as big as Lacey and Bailey, but she made up for it with her outsized personality.

Chole gave Laurie stubborn, sideways looks when she called her inside. She snuggled on their laps and nuzzled Braden Barrios, their grandson, whom Laurie watched for her other daughter.

Chole, though, had a glitch. She was skittish. She shook with fear around strangers, and so, on a Sunday a few weeks ago, just as Laurie was finishing her walk with Chole, a woman riding a bike on the Poudre Trail was too much for the young beagle.

She tore away from Laurie in terror, heading right for 83rd Avenue, where a car approached. Laurie screamed and turned her head. She made it, onlookers told her, and Laurie thought she would find her in the neighborhood across the busy street. She looked for hours. There was no trace of Chole.

The residents in the area, though, called with updates. We saw her by the grass. We saw her running down the trail, but with no leash, as Chole found a way to wriggle out of it.

Chole’s Houdini-like talent for escaping frustrated the Poeschls, who could not get the terrified Chole to come even to them, and Peterson, who brought a trap he borrowed from his son-in-law to catch her.

A week later, Peterson saw Chole and called the Poeschls from the number they gave on the flyer they handed out door-to-door. Then, when he could not catch Chole, he heard the beagle crying in the mournful way only a beagle can every night from their home next to the trail, and that was too much for him. He set a trap with food and checked on it every couple of hours among the trees and grass. Chole, however, found a way to eat the food but stay free of the trap, just the way Houdini would. Randy knew this because, well, the food was gone, and he recognized the beagle’s tracks around the cage.

All the searching and trapping was wearing on all of them but Peterson, who refused to give up, even two weeks after she got away from Laurie. The Poeschls, who were so worried they couldn’t eat and slept only sporadically, lost hope when neighbors called to say they had spotted Chole farther east than before. Coyotes were known to roam that area, they said.

That night, Peterson heard Chole’s cry again, but it sounded urgent. Peterson ran out there, and there was Chole in the cage. He saw coyote prints all around the bars. Apparently they couldn’t get to her. Chole was caught just in time.

Peterson called the Poeschls, and within minutes, they were on his driveway. Rod still in his stocking feet, hugged Peterson off the ground. Laurie collapsed on the driveway, crying, and wrapped her arms around the cage.

Last week, the Poeschls took Randy and his wife, Ardis, out to dinner to thank them. Chole had some ticks in her ear but didn’t lose any weight and doesn’t seem emotionally scarred from the incident. She’s still skittish around strangers but still sits on Laurie’s lap.

Laurie walks Chole with another leash, one she can carry with a death grip. And she walks Chole around her own neighborhood now. Maybe that way, if she ever gets loose again, she can find her own way home.

— Staff writer Dan England is The Tribune’s Features Editor. His column runs on Tuesday. If you have an idea for a column, call (970) 392-4418 or e-mail dengland@greeleytribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DanEngland.